Waiting
by Athletic nerd
Summary: Zelda's thoughts of the seven years Link was sleeping and what she thinks of herself, Hyrule's horrors given a bit of a more realistic approach than what is explicitly shown in the game, fleshed out Zelda's guilt and went off of how bad she must have felt being the benevolent and loving ruler that she was portrayed as. the rating gave me trouble so I played it safe.


Waiting

Seven years is a long time. Such a span seems even longer when all you care for is being torn down around your ears. It was also a very painful time, never being able to openly raise your hand against a megalomaniacal oath breaking tyrant, because your very existence was a liability if openly known, word of your freedom being the lynchpin for all of an entire kingdom's hopes, dreams, and prayers. Yet, often times, running around in the shadows, using magic to masquerade as a Sheika boy, sacrificing the last years of your childhood by watching your people suffer and being relegated to figurehead playing a losing game, felt like anything but freedom. Yes the occasional acts of heroics felt good and gave a little hope, but at the same time they were a crutch, to make it feel like someone was fighting back, like the helplessness of the situation wasn't actually there, the only lasting good it did was to keep the despairing princess from madness and hopelessness for those seven long years.

A lot can happen in seven years too, being that it is such a long time. For some reason though it all seemed to happen quickly when just thinking back on the events specifically, probably because it everything that went bad went bad in the worst possible way, Lon Lon Ranch started price gouging and stopped selling horses, the land's only professional carpenter's guild disappeared, Castle town fell and the dead rose within its walls, the Gorons were the only people actively fighting back and they were losing, of course there was also the Goron eating dragon who had been resurrected causing death mountain to erupt every other Friday, then lake Hyila dried up at the same time as the Zora just disappearing, among the survivors in Kakariko there were the occasional kidnappings supposedly used as brainwashing experiments in the desert, also with the Deku tree gone the last truly safe haven left became overrun with monsters, and every temple except for the one within walking distance of the now evil castle had been turned into breeding grounds for all manner of foul beasts, to top it off the grave keeper up and died right when he was needed most. Maybe there was a bright side though, at least it took seven years for this all to happen, things could have gotten as bad as they did much faster than they had and people still seemed to have hope, the fishing pond and the shooting gallery were still open and people adapted to the point where they still went about their daily lives, just much more closely knit as a community, and once the Hero from her dream had shown up, clearing the temples and fixing all the problems trained and prepared him for the final fight. The greatest good that had been wrought from the jaws of the machinations of the demon king however had been how heartening its reversing had been, slowly the dying screams and suffering moans around the land had quieted, the pall of darkness lifting bit by bit as one by one the troubles of Hyrule were just suddenly….. fixed, and all the monsters and curses were undone and while it put a deep sense of guilt and a feeling of weakness in her heart, trusting in the boy turned to a young man continued to prove itself the right choice. It almost made up for the long years of waiting and suffering…. almost.

Now, as it seemed the metaphorical dawn had finally arrived, she had reveled herself to the hero and it turned into another chance for the evil one to turn it all against her, and it was time to wait yet again. She hoped that she did not wait in vain, not that she thought poorly of the savior clad in green, far from it, the hope was that he had not realized what she had long ago, this was all her fault and he should hate her for her foolishness, she had been the one who saw the Gerudo man for what he was straight away and yet taken no direct action, she was the one who had made a courageous boy a pawn in the making of the darkest time history had seen, she was the one who caused him to be put in a position where he was expected to save the world. She deserved this prison and all the evil that befell her, the people of Hyrule being saved was more than enough. Yet….. she waited still, for some reason she just felt that he was coming regardless of all her self-loathing and without resentment for all of her messes he had been forced to clean up, not because he didn't know but somehow he didn't care, she didn't know how she knew, but she was certain this wasn't just a feeling, it was knowledge, perhaps it was the goddess' gift of wisdom or she had just come to know him that well despite the distance she had tried to keep in her masquerade, whatever it was, wait she did, and she was not surprised when he arrived, even though it had been a part of the dark man's plan she knew that he would fix it whether felt she deserved it or not, he would fix it all, one look at him had told her, after all the hardships, under all the scars and silence, and in spite of all the maturity he had gained before his time, he was still her courageous hero who had braved an army just to say hello to her.

**A/N I feel like I lost hold of that one in all the listing, the idea came to me from a version of that one thought at the end "he was still the boy who had braved an army just to say hi" it just popped into my head when reading and thinking about how Zelda could have survived the seven years Link slept** **and just what the hell she did during that time, and it turned into that haha. Resubmitted because I found some errors I had to fix lemme know if you find more. Anyways, please lemme know what you thought hope ya enjoyed it and hope you see more of any thoughts I get on "paper" in the near future.**

**Nerd out**

**P.S. if anyone can tell me how to make that line thingy that people put between the story and their rantings or page breaks please do so, thank ya kindly.**

**P.P.S also let me know if you think I should do one on the thoughts of different Zeldas (or people in need of saving) throughout the series, I need to write more and practice my one shots in particular**


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